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The Lutheran Doctrine of 
the Lord's Supper 



Its Biblical and Scientific Basis 



By 
J. A. HALL, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY 



The Lutheran Doctrine of 
the Lord's Supper 



Its Biblical and Scientific Basis 



Bv 



J. A. HALL, D.D. 



PHILADELPHIA : 
THE LUTHERAN PUBLICATION SOCIETY 



T^* 
p 



Copyright, 1915, by 
The Lutheran Publication Society 



ICI.A410956 

OCT -9 1915 



PREFACE 

For the Christian the court of final appeal in 
all matters of doctrine is the Word of God. Not 
to any particular passage, but to the plain teach- 
ing of the Scripture as a whole. On no point 
is the teaching of the Word more explicit than on 
the fact of our infinite need of Christ. But the 
Christ that is needed is the historic Christ, the 
human and the divine, the Son of God and the 
Son of man. The writers of the New Testament 
know no other Christ than the One who "for 
us and for our salvation was incarnate by the 
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary and was made 
man! 3 

Redemption requires the human as well as the 
divine in the Person of the Redeemer. This is 
stated again and again by the writers of the 
New Testament. Though they present the Re- 
deemer as a divine Person, the work that He does 
is always connected with His perfect manhood. 
The mediator is (i Tim. 2:5) "the man Christ 
Jesus." Through His human obedience unto 

3 



4 PREFACE 

death He "condemned sin in the flesh," made 
atonement for our transgressions and thereby 
secured our justification. 

But justification, great as it is, is not sufficient. 
The work begun in justification must needs be 
consummated in our personal renewal and 
growth in the divine life. This Christ accom- 
plishes through His self-communication. "I am 
the vine, ye are the branches." We live only as 
our life is derived from Him. He, the "Son of 
man," is the bread which came down from 
heaven upon which we must feed. "I," said Jesus, 
"am the bread which came down from heaven; 
if any man eat this bread he shall live forever, 
and the bread that I will give is my flesh." "Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink 
His blood, ye have no life in you." "He that 
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth 
in me and I in him." 

Yet to this plain teaching of the Word, doubt 
has ever opposed the question, "How can it be ?" 
"How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" 
To this question the theologians of the Lutheran 
Church have replied, that the way and man- 
ner of this self-communication of Christ in the 



PREFACE 5 

Sacrament is a "mystery." Here stood Luther, 
and here his followers have in the main stood. 
They have insisted on the fact of the actual 
presence of the body of Christ "with," "in" and 
"under" the bread and the wine, but have 
attempted no dogmatic explanation of the mys- 
tery. 

Nevertheless, to the mind of the author, the 
question as to the way and manner of this self- 
communication (and by this we mean the com- 
munication of the whole Christ) is one that can- 
not be ignored. It is indeed a mystery. But a 
mystery is not a thing into which we are forbid- 
den to look. On the contrary, it is our privilege 
as well as our duty to search out even the deep 
things of God. Particularly is this our obligation 
when the mystery in question seems to contradict 
other facts of our experience. 

This is the author's apology for what may ap- 
pear to some to be an irreverent appeal from the 
Scripture to the teaching of science in relation to 
the nature of matter. For himself he accepts the 
fact of the communication of the body and blood 
of our Lord in the Sacrament solely and entirely 
on the authority of the word of God. It is only in 



6 PREFACE 

reply to the question, Hdw can it be? that his 
appeal is to the teaching of science. The gift 
of Luther was a marvelous intuition that enabled 
him to grasp the essential, that is, the saving 
truths of Christianity, and proclaim them anew 
to the world. The task of his sons is to explicate 
and vindicate his theology as best they may in 
the light which, since the day of the great re- 
former, God has given to men. 

J. A. H. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The Scriptural Doctrine of Sacrifice, 

Alfred Cave, D.D. 
St. Paul's Conception of Christianity, 

Prof. A. B. Bruce 
The Christian Doctrine of Sin. .Julius Muller, D.D. 
Word Studies in the New Testament, 

Marvin R. Vincent, D.D. 

The Unseen Universe Stewart and Tait 

The Properties of Matter Stewart and Tait 

Brain and Personality. . W. H. Thomson, M.D., LL.D. 

Christian Dogmatics H. Martensen, D.D. 

Unpublished Notes on S ymbolics . . W. J. Mann, D.D. 
Etc., Etc. 

"Sacraments and prayer have this in common, that 
the relation of the Christian to God in them is not 
merely one of thought and contemplation, but imme- 
diate and practical. . . . The essential difference con- 
sists in this: the sacred tokens of the new covenant 
contain also an actual communication of the being and 
life of the risen Christ, who is the Redeemer and Per- 
fecter, not only of man's spiritual but of man's cor- 
poreal nature." — Martensen, "Christian Dogmatics" 
P. 4i8. 

"If the Socinian and Zwinglian estimate of the Sacra- 
ments had been that of the Church of Christ, the Sacra- 
ments would long ago have been abandoned as useless 
ceremonies. But the Church has always seen in them 

7 



8 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

not mere outward signs (as Calvinism asserts), which 
are tokens of grace received independently of them, but 
signs which, through the power of the promise and the 
words of Christ, effect what they signify. They are 
'effectual signs of grace and God's goodwill toward 
us, by which He doth work invisibly in us/ " — Liddoris 
"Bampton Lectures" p. 480. 

"For I have received of the Lord that which also I. 
delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night 
in which He was betrayed, took bread: and when He 
had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take eat; this 
is my body, which is broken for you: this do in re- 
membrance of me." — Paul, 1 Cor. 11 : 23, 24. 



The Lutheran Doctrine of 
the Lord's Supper 

"In regard to the Lord's Supper, they teach that the 
body and blood of Christ are truly present and are 
dispensed to the communicants in the Lord's Supper; 
and they disapprove those who teach otherwise." — 
Augsburg Confession, Art. X. 

The Confessions of the Lutheran Church re- 
semble those of the Church of Rome in this, that 
they teach a real presence of the body and blood 
of Christ in the Eucharist. The teaching of the 
two Churches, however, differs in this respect : the 
Roman and Greek Churches maintain that there 
is a change in substance in the bread and wine 
immediately consequent on the consecration, so 
that the forms of bread and wine remaining, the 
whole bread has been changed into the body and 
the whole wine has been changed into the blood 
of Christ, 1 whereas the Lutheran Church teaches 



1 Appendix, Note A. 



10 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

only a presence of the body and blood of Christ 
in and under the bread and the wine, incapable of 
further explanation. Thus it is said in the Augs- 
burg Confession: "It is taught concerning the 
Lord's Supper, that the body and blood of Christ 
are truly present and are distributed to those who 
partake, and those who teach otherwise are cen- 
sured." 

So also it is asserted in the Articles of Smal- 
kald: "Concerning the Sacrament of the Altar, 
we believe that the bread and wine in the Supper 
are the true body and blood of Christ, and are 
to be given to and taken by not only pious but 
wicked Christians/' 

In Luther's "Catechismus Major," the question 
is asked, "What then is the Sacrament of the 
Altar?" and the reply is given: "It is the true 
body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in and 
under the bread and wine instituted and com- 
manded by the word of Christ to be eaten and 
drunk by us Christians." The Formula Concor- 
dia states : "We believe that in the Supper of the 
Lord the body and blood of Christ are truly and 
substantially present, and that they are truly dis- 
tributed and taken with the bread and wine. We 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER n 

believe that the words of the testament of Christ 
are not to be otherwise received than as the 
words themselves literally express, so that the 
bread does not signify the absent body of Christ, 
and the wine the absent blood of Christ, but that 
by means of a sacramental union the bread and 
the wine are truly the body and blood of Christ" ; 
and, some pages further on: "Further, we reject 
and condemn the Capernaitic eating of the body 
of Christ, which the Sacramentarians maliciously 
ascribe to us, contrary to the testimony of their 
own conscience, after so many protestations on 
our part, in order that they may bring our doc- 
trine into disrepute with their hearers, repre- 
senting, forsooth, as if we teach that the body 
of Christ is to be torn with the teeth and digested 
in the human body like any other food. But we 
believe and assert, according to the clear words 
of the testament of Christ, a true but supernat- 
ural eating of the body of Christ, just as we also 
teach the blood of Christ is truly but supernatu- 
rally drunk. But this no one can comprehend 
with the human senses or reason; wherefore, in 
this matter, as in other articles also of the faith, 
our intellect ought to submit itself to the obedience 



12 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

of Christ. For this mystery is revealed in the 
word of God alone, and is understood by faith 
alone." Further on the Formula of Concord de- 
clares: "It is taught that just as there are in 
Christ two distinct and unchanged natures in- 
separably united, so in the Holy Supper there 
are two different substances, viz., natural bread 
and the true natural body of Christ, at the same 
moment present in the administration of the 
Sacrament." 

The same conception is expressed, though in 
a more guarded and philosophic manner, by some 
of our more modern theologians. "The Lutheran 
doctrine," says Martensen, "is opposed not only to 
the doctrine of transubstantiation, but to the Cal- 
vinistic separation of heaven and earth likewise; 
Christ is not in a literal manner separate from 
His believing people, so as that they must go to 
heaven in order to find Him. Christ is on the 
right hand of God, but the right hand of God 
is everywhere (dextra Dei ubique est). And, 
therefore, He is present wholly and entirely 
(totus et integer) in His Supper, wherein He in 
an especial manner wills to be. There are not in 
the ordinance two acts, one heavenly and the 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER !3 

other earthly, distinct from each other, but the 
heavenly is comprehended in the earthly and visi- 
ble act, and is organically united therewith, thus 
constituting one sacramental act. The heavenly 
substance is communicated in, with and under 
the earthly substances. And as the sacramental 
communion is not a partaking of the corporeal 
nature of Christ apart from His spiritual nature, 
no more is it a mere partaking of the spiritual 
nature of Christ apart from His corporeity; it 
is one and undivided, a spiritual and corporeal 
communion. m 

Such, then, is the Lutheran doctrine of the 
presence of Christ in the Sacrament, as stated 
in her Confessions and by her theological writers. 
She confesses the mystery of the presence; that 
it is a thing experienced by faith yet incompre- 
hensible by the natural reason. 

Briefly stated then, the Lutheran doctrine is 
this : The Lord's Supper, while indeed a memorial 
act, commemorating the passion of our Lord, is 
vastly more. It is a means of grace in the full 
sense of the term, since there, in, with and under 



1 Martensen, "Christian Dogmatics," p. 436. 



14 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

the bread and wine the body and blood of Christ 
are truly and substantially present and are re- 
ceived with the bread and the wine. The two 
substances, the terrestrial and the celestial, are 
there in sacramental and mystical union. She re- 
jects the doctrine of consubstantiation, which 
teaches that the two substances are merged into 
a new and third substance. She holds that these 
two substances are actually offered and received 
by the believer in the Holy Eucharist; that the 
reception is indeed an oral one, not Capernaitic, 
but in a supernatural sense. The infidel and the 
wicked, though for such the Sacrament is not 
intended, receive Christ's body and blood, but not 
to their benefit, but to their condemnation. To 
avoid this result a proper preparation, admoni- 
tion, confession and absolution are, according to 
the order of the Church, to precede the solemni- 
zation of the Sacrament. 

The effect and blessings of the Lord's Supper, 
properly received, are, the forgiveness of sins, 
imparting of new life, comfort to the troubled 
conscience, and, through communion with Christ, 
the increase of sanctification. Now to this con- 
ception of the Sacrament as the offering of the 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER !5 

true body and blood of Christ, a variety of con- 
siderations clearly point. 

i. It conforms to the words of the institution: 
"This is my body; this is my blood." Here 
Luther stood, and here his true followers stand. 
Faith and creed here rest and must rest entirely 
upon the plain, unambiguous word of Christ, 
"This is my body." He says it and wills it, and 
He has all power to fulfill His word. He, the 
living, glorified Christ, in both His human and 
divine natures, is really present in the fulfillment 
of His promise. For this union of the divine 
and the human in Christ was never broken. 
Though exalted to the right hand of God, Christ 
is forever the Christ, i.e., divine and human. No 
other Christ has ever or can ever exist. Where 
He is present, He is present not in one, but in 
both of the natures which together constitute 
Him the Christ. Therefore, believing that He is 
really and truly present in the Sacrament, we also 
believe His words, "This is my body ; this is my 
blood." x 

2. The conception in which the true body and 
blood of Christ are regarded as truly present and 

1 Appendix, Note B. 



onv 



!6 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

offered in the Sacrament is alone in harmony 
with the teaching of the Scripture concerning 
the person of Christ. 

Nothing is clearer in the teaching of the 
Word than the fact of the union of the divine 
and the human in Christ. To this the Lutheran 
Church gives her hearty assent. She accepts 
without reservation the statements of the ecu- 
menical creeds as they bear on the person of 
our Lord. In the Christ she sees the God-man, 
the divine and human natures united in such a 
manner that, in this personal union each of the 
two natures retains its own proper being and 
peculiarities. She believes that the Son of God, 
from all eternity begotten of the Father, took 
upon Himself in the moment of His conception 
of the Virgin Mary, the complete human nature, 
except original sin. 1 From this union of the 
divine person with the human nature there re- 
sulted a union and communion of the two natures, 
not in the sense of a merely nominal, unreal com- 
bination, nor a merely accidental transient meet- 
ing of the two natures, but a real indissoluble 



appendix, Note C. 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 17 

union. We accordingly reject the misconception 
that the two natures in this personal union give 
up their essential characteristics or peculiarities, 
so that, through the giving up of the character- 
istics of each, a new person, but not the true 
God-man has resulted. By the union in this in- 
carnation, the peculiarities of God and of man 
are not annulled, but the divine and human 
natures are inseparably and eternally united. 
This position taken by the Lutheran Church is 
the only one that fully corresponds with the 
fundamental principles of Christianity, viz., 
actual reconciliation between God and man: the 
supernatural and the natural; the infinite and the 
finite; the real and the ideal. 

It acknowledges without any arbitrary restric- 
tion, the personality of Him through whom the 
reconciliation was accomplished, and at the same 
time does not confuse the divine and the human, 
the spiritual and the natural. From this position 
results as a logical and theological necessity, the 
Lutheran doctrine of the communicatio idio- 
matuni, upon which, as some of our theologians 
hold, the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Sup- 
per either stands or falls. Concerning the doc- 



18 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

trine of the communicatio idiomatum, we shall 
speak further along. 

3. Only the Lutheran doctrine of the Sacra- 
ment is in harmony with the teaching of the 
Word as it bears on the vital relation of Christ 
to the believer. No fact is more clearly set forth 
in the Scripture than this, that it is not an ex- 
ternal Christ; but, on the contrary, a Christ re- 
ceived and appropriated who saves. To be saved 
man must be organically united with Christ and 
Christ with man. The mysterious union of which 
Christ speaks in the words, "I in you and you in 
me," can in no sense be a reality so long as Christ 
remains without. It is not sufficient for our re- 
demption that He became incarnate, that He 
lived a life of perfect obedience, or that He died 
and rose again for our justification. His life, 
His death, His resurrection, all must be ours ; 
and this is possible only through His personal in- 
dwelling. He must not only do a work for us, 
He must also live within us. So long as He stands 
without, an object of contemplation or even of 
worship, He cannot save. This is why Jesus said, 
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink His blood, ye have no' life in you." "He 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 19 

that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwell- 
eth in me and I in him!' 

Now it was this truth that Jesus presented 
under the analogy of bread. For the distinctive 
characteristic of bread is its ability to nourish 
every part of our complex organization. It 
satisfies the whole man on the physical side of 
his being. And what bread is to the body, that 
Christ is to the whole man. "I," said Jesus, "am 
the true bread which came down from heaven/' 
On this bread man — that is, the whole man — 
must feed. Here emerge two truths. 

First, the qualification of Christ to satisfy 
every need of man. He is divine and human; 
the heavenly and the earthly. Not one, apart 
from the other, but both in eternal and indis- 
soluble union. Wherever He is, He is as the 
Christ, the God-man. Accordingly when He of- 
fers Himself, it is not a part, but the whole 
Christ that is offered. 

The second truth is that man himself is double. 
He is both spirit and body inseparably conjoined. 
If, therefore, man, as man, is to be nourished, 
both sides of his being must be fed. For man is 
not spirit alone, but spirit and body. Subtract 



20 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

the body and he ceases to be man. Subtract the 



spirit and he is no longer man but an animal. 
Body and spirit, spirit and body, this is man. 
From this it follows that if man is to be sustained 
in all that he is, he must needs be nourished not 
on one side of his nature alone but on both. Pro- 
vision must be made for his true and real body 
as well as his soul. This is why Christ must com- 
municate His whole self to man as food. This 
is why He must give us His body to eat and 
His blood to drink. For it must not be forgotten 
that the true body of man needs the Christ as 
well as the soul. Both hunger for God and both 
cry out for redemption. 

This seems to be the meaning of Paul in Rom. 
8 : 22, 23, "For we know that the whole creation 
groaneth and travaileth in pain together until 
now. And not only they, but we ourselves also 
which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we 
ourselves groan within ourselves waiting for the 
adoption, to wit, the redemption of the body." 
Theologians may have overlooked it; the so- 
called disciples of modern culture may have ig- 
nored it; nevertheless in the Scripture the fact 
is emphasized — a fact involved in the very idea 






OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 21 

of humanity — that a merely spiritual redemption 
cannot satisfy the whole man. Full redemption 
must go deeper than that; it must include the 
body as well. The significance as well as the 
glory of the resurrection is in this, that it prom- 
ises a redeemed body and assures the eternal 
union of the two natures which God in the be- 
ginning joined together when He created man 
out of the dust of the earth and breathed into 
him His own life. 1 It was the hope of a re- 
deemed body — a body ransomed from sin and 
i the grave that inspired the utterance of the 
t psalmist in Ps. 16 :g: "My flesh also shall rest 
in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in 
the grave, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine holy 
i One to see corruption." And again in the second 
i verse of the 84th Psalm : "My heart and my flesh 
cry aloud for the living God." It was the hope 
of a redeemed body that inspired the soul of the 
Chaldean seer when he thought of the time 
when in his flesh he should see God. No, it 
is not man's spirit only that cries for God or 
that pants for Him "as the hart panteth after the 



1 Appendix, Note D. 



22 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

waterbrooks." It was the voice of the body as 
well that Paul heard above the wail of the groan- 
ing creation; for the body as truly as the spirit 
is an indispensable element of the personality of 
man. 

The writers of the New Testament have no 
sympathy with that dualism that separates be- 
tween the body and the spirit or that puts the 
one in antithesis to the other. "Know ye not/' 
says Paul, "that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of 
God, and ye are not your own?" "For ye are 
bought with a price; therefore glorify God in 
your body and in your spirit, which are God's." 
But they do distinguish between the body 
{soma), the material organism composed of dif- 
ferent parts, and the flesh (sarx), which is mere 
material substance. They teach that the material, 
the gross matter that enters into the constitution 
of our bodies here, shall molder into the dust 
from which it came ; but that the body, which is 
the temple of the spirit, will survive the grave. 
That, as Christ rose from the dead with a glori- 
fied body, "the first born among many brethren," 
so all who believe in Him shall rise again with a 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 23 

.spiritual body; i.e., with a body that shall per- 
fectly answer to its true ideal as the temple of 
the Holy Ghost. "It is sown in corruption; it 
is raised in incorruption : it is sown in dishonor ; 
it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it 

, is raised in power : it is sown a natural body ; it 
is raised a spiritual body." "For we know that 
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dis- 
solved, we have a building of God, an house not 
made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Ac- 
cordingly when we speak of the resurrection of 
the body, we do not mean literally these sensible 
materials entering into and constituting the gross 
flesh that is the sarx, which in this life even are 
in continual state of change, and are continually 
vanishing. We mean the ideal, the eternal body ; 
the house that we now have and that is "not made 
with hands." This is the body that awaits re- 
demption through Christ. And the point that 
must not be overlooked is precisely this, that if 
Christ is the true bread, then there is of necessity 
that in Him that answers to its needs. He must 
satisfy the need not only of the spirit of man, 
but of his true body as well ; for in no sense can 
it be said that He is the true bread unless He 



24 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

satisfies all that is of the very essence of our 
humanity. But just this, because He is divine 
and human, the ideal and the real, He and He 
alone is able to do. How significant, then, that 
He should bless the bread and say of it, "This 
is my body." It is just as though He had said, 
"What this bread is to your physical needs, that 
I am to your true selves. As it satisfies your 
physical hunger, so do I satisfy your eternal — 
the hunger that is felt by your inner and real 
selves. But you must partake of me. Of me, 
that is, of the whole Christ, for my flesh is meat 
indeed and my blood is drink indeed!' 

But when it is said that man's true body re- 
quires the bread that Christ offers in the Eucha- 
rist, it may be well to define more clearly our 
meaning, for here there must be no misunder- 
standing. For it is not the sensuous or physical 
body of Christ that it offered in the Sacrament. 
This error is condemned by our Confessions. 
They deny that it is a Capernaitic eating, a "tear- 
ing of the flesh with the teeth," as Luther speaks 
of it. Nor is it the sensuous body of man — that 
flesh and blood of which it is said that it "profit- 
eth nothing," that needs the heavenly nourish- 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 25 

ment offered in the Holy Sacrament. By the true 
body we do not mean the gross substance that 
constitutes the sensuous that is in man and which 
must needs return to the dust from which it was 
taken. This is not man's true body, i.e., the body 
that endures through all outward changes; and 
because it endures is proof of our continued 
identity. "There is," says Paul, "a natural body, 
and there is a spiritual body. ,, It is the latter, 
viz., the body which on account of its plastic 
nature is capable of being shaped by the spirit, 
and thereby fitted to become its permanent organ 
that we have in mind. The body invisible and in- 
destructible, which dwells already in the present 
outward body, and which, because of its capacity 
of being leavened by the spirit, becomes the 
spirit's organ. It is to this body that redemption 
is promised. It is indeed a true body, but a body 
spiritualized and adapted to the needs of the 
spirit. 1 



1 A spiritual body is not a mere ghost or spirit body, 
but a physical body spiritualized and adapted to the 
needs of the perfect spirit. In i Cor. 15 : 40-42, Paul 
is speaking of the difference between the natural and 
the spiritual body. It would seem from the 41st verse 
that he shared the current opinion among the Jews 



26 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

And this being the case, it will need its ap- 
propriate food; it too, as well as the spirit, will 
need to appropriate Christ, for it is not a part, 
but the whole man that requires the bread that 
came down from heaven. And just here is the 
point. It is not the spiritual, as such, in Christ that 
is suited to be the nourishment of man's spirit- 
ual body. It is Christ's true body by which our 
true bodies are made perfect and glorified. It is 
the touch of His glorified body that leavens and 
glorifies ours. Spirit cannot be food for body any 
more than body can become food for pure spirit. 
Yet both our spirit and body need appropriate 
nourishment, for both together constitute man. 

So it comes that Christ must sustain to the 
whole person the relation that bread sustains to 
the physical body. He must satisfy all of our 
essential needs. But to do this He must come 



that in the life to come the righteous would have 
shining bodies. The Jew thought of the spirit as a 
kind of thin matter, an ether, endowed with the prop- 
erty of permanence, luminous, and the power to pene- 
trate all things. However that may be, the words 
egeiro and anastasis suggest the idea of the resurrec- 
tion body springing out of the mortal body as grain 
springs out of the seed sown in the ground. (Appendix, 
Note E.) 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 2 7 

to us in a way other than that of His written 
Word. He must somehow communicate to us His 
true body. And this is involved in the very idea 
of His person. Because He is divine and human 
inseparably conjoined, wherever He is, He is in 
both of His natures. Accordingly to really feed 
on Christ is to feed on Him in both of His 
natures. In no other sense can He rightly be 
called the true bread ; for only as He satisfies the 
whole man is He our true sustenance. Without 
the divine in Him our spirits would hunger in 
vain. Without the human in Him our true bodies 
would go unsatisfied. It is because of the fact 
that He possesses both and communicates both 
that He becomes our complete satisfaction. 

But down deep in our hearts, and born out of 
our unbelief, there arises the question, How can 
it be? Is not body, whether it be His or ours, 
in its very idea material? Are not extension, 
visibility, impenetrability essential qualities of 
body? Is not its nature such as to preclude the 
possibility of its being at two or more places at 
the same time? How then can Christ's body be 
in heaven, at the right hand of God, and here on 
the earth where His disciples meet to commemo- 



28 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

rate His passion ? How can it be, "Wherever two 
or three are gathered in His name" ? It is the old 
question asked there in Capernaum, "How can 
this man give us His flesh to eat and His blood 
to drink?" "Well," said Christ, "it must be." 
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man and 
drink His blood you have no life in you ; for my 
flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink in- 
deed." 

Now, to this question, How it can be? the 
Lutheran theologians reply in the doctrine of 
the communicatio idiomatum. By this is meant 
the communication of attributes. The substance 
of the doctrine is that in the unity of the person 
of Christ one of the two natures communicates 
to the other its peculiarities or idiomata, without 
in any way confusing the essentials of both the 
divine and the human. That by virtue of its 
union with the divine in Christ the human was 
exalted and made to possess attributes which 
naturally belong to the divine. Nevertheless the 
human remains human. This was the view of 
Luther and of all who sympathized with him in 
his convictions on this subject. 

This doctrine of the communication of divine 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 29 

attributes to the human has its warrant in many- 
passages of the Scriptures. In John 5 we are told 
that, "As the Father hath life in Himself, so 
hath He given to the Son to have life in Him- 
self/' and hath given Him authority to "execute 
judgment also," because He is the Son of man. 
In Col. 2:9, Paul tells us that "in Him dwelleth 
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." Again, 
it is said of Christ that "God also hath highly ex- 
alted Him and given Him a name which is 
above every name." Thus by the communica- 
tion of divine attributes the human in Christ is 
glorified and made to be present wherever the 
divine is or wills to be. Inseparably conjoined 
to the divine the human in Christ is wherever He 
is; for it is not one nature of Christ that is 
present everywhere, but the whole Christ ; that is 
to say, the divine and the human, for both con- 
stitute the Christ. 

Now in this there is something very surprising. 
For this answer to the objection that, since the 
body of Christ according to its very idea is mate- 
rial, it cannot be present in different places at the 
same time, as the doctrine of the presence of the 
body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament re- 



30 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

quires us to believe, was given long before science 
had directed its attention intelligently to a study 
of the nature of matter itself. It was in the year 
1577 that the Formula of Concord was adopted. 
Yet when its statement concerning the communis 
catio idiomata are put side by side with the re- 
cent utterances of science concerning the nature 
and properties of matter, it will be found that 
they spake wiser than they knew. It is but 
another illustration of the fact that it is always 
safe to follow the plain teaching of the Word, no 
matter as to where it seems to lead. For Script- 
ure rightly interpreted can never be at war with 
true science. And this is the marvelous thing, 
that in following the plain teaching of the Word 
the authors of the doctrine of the real presence 
of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, 
though they knew it not, put themselves in per- 
fect alignment with the last utterances of science 
in respect of the nature and properties of matter. 
That the old theories of matter have been 
abandoned is common knowledge. That matter 
is an entirely different thing from what it was 
once thought to be is gladly admitted by all those 
whose investigations of its nature give them a 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 31 

right to speak. 1 It is now held that it exists not 
in one but in a variety of forms. That in its 
higher forms it loses many, if not all the qualities 
that belong to it in its lower. That as we leave 
the lower and proceed to the higher, matter par- 
takes more and more of the nature of spirit. "As 
we pass from the lower to the higher forms/' 
says Prof. Crooks, "matter more and more loses 
its ordinary properties and more and more as- 
sumes the character of radiant energy/' Fara- 
day, in his "Lif e and Letters/' says : "If we con- 
ceive a change as far beyond vaporization as this 
is above fluidity, and then take into account also 
the proportional increased extent of alteration as 
the changes rise, we shall, perhaps, if we can 
form any conception at all, not fall far short of 
radiant matter; and as in the last conversion 
many qualities were lost, so here also many more 
would disappear." 2 

A familiar example of this is afforded in the 
various forms of water. In the form of ice, 
water is solid. It is inert, impenetrable, and, like 
all solids, possessed of three dimensions. In its 



1 Appendix, Note F. 

2 Appendix, Note G. 



32 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

form as fluid it loses some of these qualities. In 
the form of steam it loses still others that it had 
in the form of ice, becomes invisible and assumes 
the nature of pure energy. The same law holds 
good in the case of many of the metals. They 
also exist under a variety of forms, and in their 
higher lose some of the properties that belong 
to them in their lower. The same is true of the 
body. Paul tells us that "All flesh is not the 
same flesh ; but there is one kind of flesh of men, 
another flesh of beasts, another of fishes and 
another of birds. There are celestial bodies and 
bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial 
is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another." 
Clearly in this passage the apostle has in mind 
our true, that is, our spiritual bodies, and his 
purpose is to show that they are not subject to 
the laws that hold in the realm of lower organ- 
isms. In other words, that in the constitution of 
the spiritual body matter exists in a different 
and higher form from the one which it assumes 
in what he calls sarx, or the baser flesh. 

Herman Ulrici conceived of the spiritual body 
as a perfect fluid, something similar to the ether. 
He held that this fluid is devoid of atoms, that 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 33 

it extends from a given center, permeating the 
entire structure of the body, operating instinct- 
ively and in co-operation with the vital forces. 
But someone will ask, Is not all this a mere con- 
jecture? Is it indeed a fact that matter in its 
higher forms loses many of the qualities that be- 
long to it in its lower, and assumes more and 
more the nature of spirit ? Well, it is at least the 
teaching of science, the result of long and patient 
investigation of the nature and properties of 
matter. 

But whatever may be our estimate of the value 
of scientific evidence in this particular, the cor- 
rectness of its position is confirmed by the uni- 
versal consciousness of men. For, somehow, we 
cannot rid ourselves of the conviction that there 
is a real difference between the body of one 
whose "conversation is in heaven" and that of 
the sensuous worlding; between, for illustration, 
the body of a St. John and that of the wicked 
and lustful Nero. The conviction is deep and 
universal that sensuousness leaves its marks on 
the body and debases it to the level, or even below 
that of the beasts ; while, on the contrary, heaven- 
ly-mindedness imparts to it its own spiritual 



34 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

qualities. Sin does debase the body. The inner- 
most life and thoughts of men are written not 
only on the countenance but on the entire phy- 
sical structure. It is not the body that leavens 
and changes the spirit, but the spirit that leavens 
and transforms the body. This is why St. Paul 
prays for his people that "their whole spirit and 
soul and body may be preserved blameless unto 
the coming of the Lord Jesus." He had no sym- 
pathy with that mysticism that despises the body 
and finds in it the source of all evil. That is 
Paganism. He thought of it as capable of being 
freed from the curse of sin, spiritualized and 
glorified. He thought of it as the "temple of the 
Holy Ghost/' and, therefore, not to be made 
members of "an harlot." United as were the 
body and spirit in the beginning, they were never 
meant to be separated. The sanctified body and 
the sanctified spirit, in spite of sin, are to be united 
in the wedlock of the resurrection, never to be 
divorced. I know that in the King James* trans- 
lation Paul is made to speak of 'our vile bodies" 
as being changed and fashioned like unto Christ's 
glorious body. But that is not a correct transla- 
tion of the text. It is said that when Archbishop 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 35 

Whately was dying his chaplain came to read the 
Scriptures and to comfort him, and, turning to 
this passage in Philippians, he read: "For our 
conversation is in heaven; from whence also we 
look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall change our vile body, that it may be fash- 
ioned like unto His glorious body." "Stop!" 
said the archbishop, "hand me the Greek Testa- 
ment and I will translate it for you." The sick 
man read: "Our citizenship is in heaven; from 
whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord 
Jesus Christ : who shall change the body of our 
humiliation and fashion it like unto the body of 
His glory." This is what Paul thought of the 
body — something, indeed, humiliated by sin, 
abused, diverted from the purpose for which it 
was created, yet for all that "the temple of the 
Holy Ghost," and, therefore, sacred. 

That it is capable of responding to the emo- 
tions of the spirit there is no question. That it is 
influenced, leavened, even transformed through 
the indwelling of a pure and heavenly spirit is 
the profound conviction of all who have thought 
deeply on the matter. Therefore it has come to 
pass that the painters of all ages have repre- 






36 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

sented the bodies of the saints as lifted above 
the earth, while they have represented the bodies 
of the wicked as earthly and groveling. The 
reason assigned for the translation of Enoch is 
given in the words, "And Enoch walked with 
God ; and he was not ; for. God took him." For the 
same reason the body of Elijah mounts upward 
in the fiery chariot and the companions of Moses 
seek in vain for his earthly tabernacle. The law 
seems to be that what is taken from the spirit is 
given to the body, and, contrariwise, what is 
given to the spirit is taken from the body. 

Moreover, this conviction that the spirit im- 
parts its own qualities to the body has its anal- 
ogy in nature. Calcium sulphide in contact with 
the rays of the sun becomes luminous. Steel in 
contact with the magnet becomes magnetized. 
Water in contact with heat loses its qualities as 
water and becomes gas, or, if you please, pure 
energy. Well, in view of all this, are we not 
warranted in the belief that matter in our bodies, 
in vital contact with the spirit, takes on spiritual 
qualities, and, as a consequence of this contact, 
lose» some of the attributes that belong to it in 
its lower forms? We are not passing beyond 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 37 

the realm of experience or of exact science when 
we affirm that such is actually the case. 1 

That such a change took place in the body of 
our Lord during His earthly pilgrimage seems 
beyond question. It is significant that the ac- 
counts of His walking on the sea and of His 
various disappearances belong to the closing 
chapters of His earthly ministry. Does not this 
point to the fact that the divine in Christ grad- 
ually leavened the body inherited from the Vir- 
gin Mary and imparted to it those spiritual quali- 
ties whereby it was made possible for Him to 
walk on the sea, to vanish from the multitude, 
and, after His resurrection, though possessing a 
true body, to pass through closed doors and ap- 
pear in bodily form to His disciples? 2 

Clearly in that appearance in the upper room 
the body of our Lord had lost a number of its 
natural attributes, and was lifted above the action 
of the laws that govern matter in its lower forms. 
Must not that perfect sympathy of the sinless 
man with the divine order of the universe have 
given Him a power over the body which was at 

1 Appendix, Note H. 

2 Appendix, Note I. 



SS THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

once divine and yet also natural? Through its 
relation to the divine in Christ we may believe 
that the material of His body was so spiritual- 
ized, so completely made the organ of His will 
as that through doors of brass or walls of ada- 
mant it could pass as easily as though these 
spaces were unoccupied. What was a natural 
body inherited from the Virgin Mary, through its 
contact with the divine in Him, became a spirit- 
ual body, yet at the same time the true body of 
our Lord. 1 

Now this is but another way of stating the 
doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum. It af- 
fords an illustration of what was said a moment 
ago, that in framing the doctrine the fathers of 
our Church spoke wiser than they knew, and at 
the same time confirms the truth that it is always 
best to follow the path indicated by the Word, no 
matter where it may seem to lead. The wisdom 
of such a course is sure to be confirmed by the 
enlightened judgment of the centuries that fol- 
low. Almost three centuries and a half have 
passed since the doctrine of the communicatio 
idiomatum was put into the confession. During 

appendix, Note J. 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 39 

the years that have intervened between that day 
and ours the doctrine has often been ridiculed 
and its statement denied in the name of science. 
Yet to-day science acknowledges that her former 
declarations concerning the nature of matter have 
in many important respects been in error, and 
confesses even that it is altogether possible for a 
substance, material in nature, to be present in 
different places at the same time. In fact, it is 
to-day admitted that we know less of the nature 
and possibilities of matter than we do of almost 
anything else, while the conviction is more and 
more deepening that in the last analysis matter 
itself may be but a form of energy. 

Permit me to close with a remarkable sentence 
from Dr. Martensen, late Bishop and theologian 
of Zeland: "All the four Gospel accounts of 
the resurrection seem to introduce two con- 
trasted representations concerning the resur- 
rected body of our Lord. The risen one seems 
now to have a human, natural life in a body such 
as He had before His death. He has flesh and 
bones, He eats and drinks; again, on the con- 
trary, He seems to have a body of a spiritual, 
transcendental kind, which is independent of the 



40 THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINE 

limitations of time and space. He enters through 
closed doors ; He stands suddenly in the midst of 
His disciples, and as suddenly becomes invisible 
to them. This contradiction which occurs in the 
appearance of the risen One, during the forty 
days, may be explained, on the supposition that 
during the interval His body was in a state of 
transition and of change, upon the boundaries of 
both worlds and possessed the impress and char- 
acter of both of these worlds. Not until the mo- 
ment of His ascension can we suppose His body 
fully glorified and free from all earthly limitations 
and wants like the spiritual body of which Paul 
speaks." 

Nevertheless the body that was His after the 
resurection was His true body. "Reach hither 
thy hand and thrust it into my side; and be not 
faithless but believing." That is to say, "I am 
the same Jesus who was crucified, and these nail- 
prints are but the proofs that I am the same and 
not another." "Handle me and see, for a spirit 
hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." 
That is, "Mine is a material body spiritualized — 
made the perfect organ of the spirit." 

So we believe that the true body of our Lord, 



OF THE LORD'S SUPPER 41 

glorified and exalted above the action of the laws 
that hold in the realm of lower matter is the 
body that He offers in the Holy Sacrament. Not 
the flesh that hungered and thirsted, that suffered 
and was weary during His pilgrimage here be- 
low, but the glorified, that is to say, the true body 
of Christ. Therefore we condemn the fleshly 
eating of our Lord's body in the Sacrament. No 
Capernaitic or fleshly eating of the body of Christ 
can appease the infinite hunger of man. Nor 
does Christ mock us by the offering of His 
earthly flesh as food. Verily the flesh profiteth 
nothing. That body to which came hunger and 
thirst and weariness ; that body which was nailed 
to the cross, though offered as food, could not 
help us. It is the true, the permanent, the fin- 
ished, the resurrected and glorified body of 
Christ that is offered. And this alone can nour- 
ish us and become for us our living, because the 
"true bread that came down from heaven." 



APPENDIX 



Note A 
That St. Paul did not believe that the consecrated 
bread and wine are changed into the body and blood 
of Christ is clear from his words in the First Epistle to 
the Corinthians. His intention was to recover the 
reverential celebration of the Lord's Supper. That in 
rebuking the disgraceful excesses of which he speaks 
he makes no use of the awful argument which would 
have come at once to a priest of Rome or even to the 
ritualistic priests of the Church of England, is proof 
from which there can be no appeal that he did not be- 
lieve in the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation. 

Note B 
The important question is as to whether the words 
of institution in this passage and others are to be in- 
terpreted literally or figuratively. In a thoughtful arti- 
cle on the Lord's Supper in the "Lutheran Cyclopedia/' 
by Prof. H. E. Jacobs, this statement occurs : "In favor 
of the literal interpretation the Lutheran Church has 
urged the harmony of these sources, as there is scarcely 
any variation in the words of the institution which they 
report. If any other than a literal interpretation be 
adopted, it would follow that the New Testament con- 
tains a doctrine which is nowhere stated in literal words. 
With such a precedent, the allegorizing process might 
extend without limit and all certainty concerning the 
doctrines of the Holy Scripture would be at an end. 

42 



APPENDIX 43 

Besides, this would conflict with the very nature of the 
New Testament, which replaces the types and figures 
of the Old Testament with the substance to which they 
pointed (Col. 2:17; Heb. 10 : 1). The words of in- 
stitution also were those of a last will and testament. 
Testators do not employ rhetorical, but the most literal 
and explicit terms. The burden of proof actually falls 
not on the advocates of a literal, but of a figurative 
interpretation." 

That St. Paul understood the words literally, is evi- 
dent from his words : "The bread is the communion of 
the body of Christ; the cup is the communion of the 
blood of Christ." That is to say, the reception of the 
bread and wine is the reception of the body and blood 
of Christ. 

This, in the institution, says Bengel, "is contrasted 
with the old shadows, and means, 'You have myself/ 
Body must be understood as literally as blood. This, 
the true blood of Christ, is shown to be actually present 
just as the blood of the victims in the Mosaic formula 
(Heb. 9.20), for that formula is here referred to." 

"The importance attached to the words in which 
Christ institutes and explains the Sacrament, varies 
concomitantly with the belief in the divinity of the 
speaker. If the speaker be held to be only a man, then, 
in order to avoid imputing to Him language of in- 
flated and thoughtless folly, it becomes necessary to 
empty the words of their natural and literal force by 
violent exegetical processes, which, if applied gener- 
ally would equally destroy the witness of the New 
Testament to the atonement, or to the divinity of Christ. 
But if Christ be in very truth believed to be the eternal 
Son of God, then the words in which He provides for 
the communication of His life-giving humanity in His 



44 APPENDIX 

Church to the end of time, may well be allowed to 
stand in all the force and simplicity of their natural 
meaning. Baptism will then be the 'laver' of 'real 
regeneration'; the Eucharist will be a real 'commun- 
ion of the body and blood' of the incarnate Jesus. If, 
with our eye upon Christ's actual Godhead, we care- 
fully weigh the momentous sentences in which He or- 
dained, and the still more explicit terms in which He 
explained His institutions; if we ponder well His 
earnestly enforced doctrine that they who would have 
part in eternal life must be branches of the living vine 
whose trunk is Himself; if we listen to His apostles 
proclaiming that we are members of His body, from 
His flesh and bones, then in a sphere so inaccessible to 
the measurements of natural reason, so abundantly con- 
trolled by the great axioms of faith, it will not seem 
incredible that as many as have been 'baptized into 
Chrisf should really 'have put on Christ,' or that the 
body of Jesus Christ which was given for us should 
now, when received sacramentally, preserve our souls 
unto everlasting life." — Liddon's "Bampton Lectures" 
pp. 481, 482. 

Note C 

"That Christ's corporeal nature before His cruci- 
fixion was the same as ours is not only witnessed by 
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. 2 : 14. 
Compare 1 John 4 : 2, 3), but is implied in the gospel 
history of His life throughout. His body as to its 
material was 'earthly,' and as to its organic relation to 
His inner human nature natural. Paul does not iden- 
tify the material side of man with evil. The flesh is 
not the native seat and source of sin. It is only its 
organ and the seat of sin's manifestations. Matter is 
not essentially evil. The logical consequence of this 
would be that no service of God is possible while the 



APPENDIX 45 

material organ remains (Rom. 12 : 1). The flesh is 
not necessarily sinful in itself; but as it has existed 
from the time of the introduction of sin through Adam, 
it is recognized by Paul as tainted with sin. Jesus ap- 
peared in the flesh and yet was sinless." — Muller, "Doc- 
trine of Sin," p. 207. 

"In Rom. 8 13, Paul tells us that Christ came 'in 
the likeness of sinful flesh/ Literally, 'of the flesh of 
sin.' The choice of words is especially noteworthy. 
Paul does not say simply, He came in flesh (1 John 
4:2; 1 Tim. 3 : 16), for this would not have expressed 
the bond between Christ's manhood and sin. Not in 
the flesh of sin, which would have represented Him as 
partaking of sin. Not 'in the likeness of flesh/ since 
He really was human; but in the likeness of the flesh 
of sin; really human, conformed in appearance to the 
flesh whose characteristic is sin, yet sinless." — Vincent, 
"Word Studies in the New Testament," Vol. 3, p. 85. 

"Christ appeared in a body which was like that of 
other men in so far as it consisted of flesh, and was 
unlike in so far as the flesh was not flesh of sin." — 
Dickson, "St Paul's Use of the Terms Flesh and 
Spirit" 

Note D 

"We may suppose that an invisible and indestructible 
germ of the future body dwells already in the present, 
and that precisely therein is placed the guarantee of 
the identity of the two; an identity even amidst the 
greatest possible differences. The soma pneumatikon 
of the redeemed is in its innermost essence identical 
with the present body of man; so that the latter is 
to be regarded as the unexpanded germ of the former, 
the former as the glorious development of the latter." 



46 APPENDIX 

— Van Oosterzee, "Christian Dogmatics" Vol 2, p. 
787. 

Note E 

"We are logically constrained to admit the existence 
of some frame or organ which is not of this earth, 
and which survives dissolution, if we regard the prin- 
ciple of continuity and the doctrine of the future state 
as both true. Besides, the analogy of Paul in which 
the body of the believer at death is compared to a seed 
put in the ground, not only implies some sort of con- 
tinuity, but also expresses his belief in the present 
spiritual body. There is, says the apostle — not there 
shall be — a spiritual body. Again the same apostle tells 
us (2 Cor. 5:1) that if our earthly house of this taber- 
nacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house 
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." — "Un- 
seen Universe" p. 203. 

Note F 

Without doubt the common and most persistent ob- 
jection to the view just presented of the presence of 
the body and the blood of Christ in the Sacrament 
arises from a false notion of the nature of matter itself. 
In a text-book of natural philosophy lying before me, 
we are told that the essential properties of matter are 
extension, impenetrability and inertia. Extension is 
defined as meaning that every portion of matter, how- 
ever small, has length, breadth and thickness, and, there- 
fore, occupies space. By impenetrability is meant that 
matter excludes all other matter from the space that 
it occupies. By inertia is meant the tendency of matter 
to continue in its present condition as to motion and 
rest. Unfortunately this old idea of matter yet holds 
its place in the minds of many. The idea still prevails 
that of all knowledge that which we possess of the nature 






APPENDIX 47 

of matter is the most intimate and complete. "Of what 
can we know more than of the material things with 
which we are brought into daily contact?" "Matter is 
something that we know through our sense faculties." 
Yet there is no greater mistake than this notion that we 
know matter in all its forms by the senses. Matter 
only in its lower forms can so be known. In its higher 
forms it is removed entirely from the circle of sense 
knowledge. It is something that cannot be seen or 
felt; something which does not exclude other forms 
of matter from the same space. In fact, it is now ad- 
mitted that we know less of the nature of matter than 
we do of most things. 

Then, too, it is often forgotten that matter exists in 
a variety of forms, and that in its higher forms it 
loses some, if not all, of the qualities which belong to 
it in its lower. It is now admitted that neither exten- 
sion nor impenetrability are properties of matter in its 
higher, but only in its lower forms. Boscovich believed 
that the idea of substance was not essential; and even 
iso great an experimental philosopher as Faraday may 
be quoted as to some extent agreeing with him. That 
our knowledge of matter is, to say the least, but hazy, 
will be admitted by all who have given their lives to 
its study. Some of its properties we indeed know, but 
what matter is in itself we know no more than did 
Democritus or Lucretius. That there is, however, noth- 
ing in the nature of matter to preclude the presence 
of the body of our Lord from being present with and 
under the bread in the Eucharist is clear from the testi- 
,mony of many of the most renowned scientists. 

Note G 
"The deservedly famous Dr. Young has the following 
passage in his lecures on Natural Philosophy: 'We 



48 APPENDIX 

see forms of matter, differing in subtility and mobility, 
under the name of solids, liquids and gases; above 
these are the semi-material existences, which produce 
the phenomena of electricity and magnetism and either 
caloric or a universal ether. Higher still, perhaps, are 
the causes of gravitation and the immediate agents in 
attractions of all kinds which exhibit some phenomena 
apparently still more remote from all that is compatible 
with our material bodies. And of these different 
orders of beings, the more refined and immaterial ap- 
pear to pervade freely the grosser. It seems, there- 
fore, natural to believe that the analogy may be con- 
tinued still further, until it rises into existences abso- 
lutely immaterial and spiritual. We know not but that 
thousands of spiritual worlds may exist unseen forever 
by human eyes ; nor have we any reason to suppose 
that even the presence of matter in a given spot neces- 
sarily excludes these existences from it/* — "Unseen 
Universe" p. 201. 

Note H 

"Whatever we may think of the claims of Sweden- 
borg, it will not be denied that his system is that of a 
great thinker. Many have been the great men who 
have not hesitated to express their admiration of him 
and his work. It is one thing, however, to admit the 
beauty, the philosophical completeness of many of his 
statements, and another to believe that he actually con- 
versed with the inhabitants of another world. It is the 
profoundness of his thought, and not his errors, that 
should constitute our measure of the man. Speaking 
of man's moral nature, Swedenborg tells us that 'Man 
at his birth puts on the grosser substance of nature, 
his body consisting of such. This grosser substance 
by death he puts off, but retains the purer substances 
of nature which are next to those that are spiritual. 



APPENDIX 49 

These purer substances serve thereafter as his body, 
the content and expression of his mind/ His idea was 
that 'Man is a spirit now inhabiting a body/ 'The 
spirit clothes itself with the body as with a living gar- 
ment.' 'The body is formed by the spirit and formed 
on the spirit/ 'Death frees the spirit from the outer 
body/ This body is laid away in the grave. The spirit 
does not, however, pass into an unclothed existence. 
It is clothed with a new garment of matter. The inner 
spiritual form is the counterpart of the outer earthly 
body in every vital respect." — W. White, "Life and 
Writings of Swedenborg" 

The idea that the soul creates for itself a body is not 
only a natural one but, if we accept the statement of so 
eminent authority as Dr. Thomson, is also a fact con- 
firmed by experiment. In a remarkable book, entitled 
"Brain and Personality," Dr. Thomson makes the fol- 
lowing statements : 

"We can make our own brains, so far as special 
functions are concerned, if we only have wills strong 
enough to take the trouble." (P. 217.) 

"It is the will alone which can make material seats 
for the mind, and when made they are the most per- 
sonal things in man's body. ... So long as his brain 
matter has not become 'set/ as potters would express 
it, by the lapse of years, he deals with his cortical gray 
matter by the purposive exercise of memorizing habit, 
as the potter deals with the clay. And wondrously does 
he fashion it, until it no more resembles the gray 
matter of the other side of his head in mental capaci- 
ties than unfashioned clay resembles a Portland vase." 
IP. 232.) 

"All acquired endowments, therefore, are acquired 
by the modification of the material comprising the 



50 APPENDIX 

speaking half of the brain. This speaking half of the 
brain did not originally have a single one of these great 
functions, not a single place for them, any more than 
its fellow-hemisphere has to the end of life. They are 
all stamped, as it were, each in its respective place in 
the speaking hemisphere by a single creative agency." 

(p. 271.) 

"The mental and moral equipment of man seems 
sufficient for any future life, however limitless its con- 
ditions. Locality, which held such exclusive place in 
ancient conceptions, can be wholly subordinated now 
to questions about states of being. We can now con- 
ceive of a body no longer made of the most temporary 
forms of matter which is itself passing away, but 
fashioned to be a dynamic body, a body of power 
which need not shrink, as here, from the heavy burden 
of wilL ,, (P. 314.) 

Even Prof. Huxley, though a materialist, comes dan- 
gerously near the position that thought has power to 
create for itself an organ. In his Belfast address he 
tells us that, "It is not to be doubted that those motions 
which give rise to sensations leave on the brain changes 
in its substance which answer to what Haller called 
vestiga rerum. The sensation which has passed away 
leaves behind molecules of the brain competent to its 
reproduction which constitute the physical foundation 
of memory ." 

Note I 

This was the opinion of Julius Muller : "We may," he 
says, "suppose that, upon the principle of development, 
the change in Christ's risen humanity was not wholly 
accomplished at the moment of His ascension, but that 
there had been going on, from the day of His resur- 
rection, a development of His glorified corporeity, 
which expanded from its bud into its perfect bloom in 



APPENDIX 51 

the ascension. The process must be conceived of as 
progressing outwards from within ; the spirit gradually 
penetrated his corporeity and so molded it that it be- 
came — what in idea it was to be — its pure and per- 
fectly transparent exponent (soma pneumatikon). . . . 
Though the resurrection must be regarded as the turn- 
ing point when the glorifying and spiritualizing process 
in Christ's body began to approach its consummation 
in the ascension, we cannot limit this process within 
these two events. It may have been going on gradually 
even before His death without in the least deteriorating 
from the reality of His earthly body. There is one 
event indicating this in the gospel history; I mean the 
transfiguration which took place shortly before His pas- 
sion; a manifestation of the hidden glory of His body 
to His most trusty disciples." 

Note J 
The author is not unaware that this conception of the 
body of our Lord is not in harmony with the teaching 
of the Formula of Concord that, "The God-man par- 
takes, ever since He was conceived in the womb of the 
Virgin Mary, of the absolute fullness of Deity; that 
as a babe, as a child and as a man He was almighty, 
omnipresent and omniscient ; that while possessing these 
divine attributes He in His state of humiliation ab- 
stained from their use." To him the statement of the 
Augsburg Confession, "true man," is capable of but 
one interpretation, viz., that, as to His mental and 
physical nature, He was truly human and subject to 
human necessities; to hunger, thirst, weariness, physi- 
cal pain and suffering. As truly human, there was of 
necessity a gradual development from childhood to 
youth, and from youth to manhood; that this growth 
and development apply not only to the physical but 



52 APPENDIX 

also to the mental. "Birth in time," says Martensen, 
"is necessarily connected with the notion of a progress 
from unconsciousness to consciousness, of possibility to 
actuality, of a grain of seed and germ to ripe organiza- 
tion; and any view of the birth of the God-man incon- 
sistent with these conditions must be characterized as 
Docetical." To suppose that He had or could have had 
in the cradle the thoughts that He expressed at a later 
period in His life, is to destroy His reality as a human 
person as well as to disqualify Him for His work as 
High Priest and Redeemer. According to the teaching 
of the New Testament writers the Redeemer is always 
a man "touched with a feeling for our infirmities, hav- 
ing in all points been tempted like as we are." The media- 
tor is (i Tim. 2 : 5) a man Christ Jesus. It is the Son of 
man (Mark 13 '.26) who comes to judgment; the Son 
of man (John 6 : 27) who gives the bread of life. What 
is needed in one who would be our perfect priest and 
representative is perfect manhood. Luther says : "The 
humanity of Christ, like another holy, natural man, has 
not at all times thought, spoken, willed all things, 
although some make an almighty man of Him, and un- 
wisely mingle the two natures and their work to- 
gether." On Luke 2 he says : "The words, 'He in- 
creased in spirit and wisdom/ must stand fast, and all 
peculiar, imaginary articles of faith, which would put 
themselves in opposition to this word, are to be allowed 
to go ; one must understand the words according to 
their simplest signification. Whether He was at all 
times full of spirit and grace, the Spirit did not at all 
times move Him, but now urged Him to this and 
now to that. Whether He was in Him from the 
commencement of His conception, still, just as His 
body grew and His reason increased, in a natural man- 
ner, as other men, so the Spirit rested upon Him ever 



APPENDIX 53 

more and more, and moved Him more and more. 
That there may be no dissimulation, Luke says, 'He be- 
came strong in spirit/ but as the words sound clear, 
it also follows most plainly that the older He became 
the greater He really grew before God and in Him- 
self and before the people, and the greater the more 
rational, and the more rational the stronger in spirit 
and wisdom, and no gloss can be tolerated here. And 
this understanding is free from danger, and there is no 
force in the fear as to whether it conflicts with their 
imaginary article of faith." 

For a full discussion of the matter see Dorner's 
"System of Christian Doctrine," Vol. 3, pp. 223-238. 
Also Dorner's "Person of Christ," Div. 1, Vol. 1, pp. 
213-216. Also SchafFs "Creeds of Christendom," Vol. 
1, p. 320. Also Kahnis* "Lutheran Dogmatic," Vol. 8, 
pp. 338 seq. 



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